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The Wildstorm comic book sequel to 2003’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot is arguably one of the best entries in the horror film franchise.
Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre is widely regarded as one of the greatest horror movies of all time. The story of hippy teenagers encountering vicious cannibals and a chainsaw-wielding murderer in rural Texas is a unique and unforgettable experience in terror. Since the release of the original film in 1974, the movie has spawned multiple sequels, reboots and remakes including this year’s upcoming Netflix film, set for release on February 18th.
While the movie franchise can best be described as hit-and-miss, the series got its most effective sequel in a 2007 six-issue comic book miniseries that was a follow-up to Marcus Nispel’s 2003 remake. Published by Wildstorm Comics, Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett and Craig Wes’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre takes place one year after the events of Nispel’s movie, as a team of FBI agents investigate the aftermath of Leatherface’s horrific crimes.
Hunkering down on the Hewitt family homestead as they try to piece together what has happened, the vengeful Agent Baines of the FBI (uncle to one of the film’s victims) and his team learn that Leatherface and his family haven’t exactly turned away from their nefarious ways. One by one, Baines’ team is captured and slaughtered by the clan, turned into meat for the supper pot. At the same time, intrepid reporter Kim Burns faces her own fight for survival, as her investigation brings her face to face with Leatherface himself.
Where New Line Cinema initially followed up 2003’s remake with a the 2006 prequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (directed by Jonathan Liebesman), this comic book takes a more difficult route. Instead of retelling the same story, it furthers the story of the Hewitt clan and digs deeper into the surrounding world of Fuller, Texas, peeling back the layers of its other residents.
In bringing back Leatherface after the events of Nispel’s 2003 film – which saw the killer defeated when one of his arms is cut off – Abnett and Lanning deal with the now one-armed slasher villain. While the logistics of moviemaking may make this a somewhat inconvenient development, it works out great in comic book form. Leatherface has rarely looked as frightening as he does here, swinging about his chainsaw with only one arm, leaping out from the shadows to rend and kill without warning like a wounded and desperate animal.
In its battle between an unhinged lawman and the cannibal monsters who killed his niece, the book recalls the events of the very first sequel – 1986’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, also by director Tobe Hooper. In this sequel, Leatherface and the surviving members of his clan were pursued by vengeful uncle ‘Lefty’ Enright (Dennis Hopper, in one of his most memorable roles). As Enright caught up with Leatherface, the pair duked it out with chainsaws. In Baines, we see much of Hopper’s Enright – his obsession, his fury, and perhaps even a budding degree of frightening insanity. Where most Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies are about teenage misadventures, this book – and Hooper’s 1986 sequel – is about adults, and feels more mature as a result.
The comic book also culminates with a frenzied chainsaw battle between lawman and cannibal clan member, turning the would-be hero into into a teeth-gnashing maniac. In its depiction of hot, sweaty, infectious madness, Abnett and Lanning’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre feels more faithful to Hooper’s original movie than any other entry in the franchise before or since.
Sadly, this six-part miniseries would be the end of this iteration of Leatherface. While Wildstorm went on to produce a handful of one-shots and spin-offs based on the title, none were as ambitious or cinematic as Abnett and Lanning’s sequel. The series also marks the last time that Nispel’s continuity has been seen, as the series was rebooted in the 2013 movie Texas Chainsaw 3D that returning to Tobe Hooper’s original timeline. With Netflix’s upcoming foray into the world of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the studio once again hopes to turn around the fortunes of Texas’s iconic power tool maniac. When compared to the Wildstorm comic, the series has a lot to live up to.
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